Featured Post

"Let no freedom be allowed to novelty, because it is not fitting that any addition should be made to antiquity. Let not the clear faith and belief of our forefathers be fouled by any muddy admixture."
-- Pope Sixtus III

Almighty God, Father of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, revealed to us so powerfully in Your Son, Jesus Christ,
we thank You for showering Your blessings on this, our beloved nation.
Bless all here present and all across this great land who work hard for
the day when a greater portion of Your justice
and a more ample measure of Your care for the poor and suffering may
prevail in these United States. Help us to see that a society's
greatness is found above all in the respect it shows for the weakest and
neediest among us.

We beseech You, Almighty God, to shed Your grace on this noble experiment in ordered liberty
which began with the confident assertion of inalienable rights bestowed
upon us by You: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Thus do we praise You for the gift of life. Grant us the courage to
defend it: life, without which, no others rights are secure. We ask
Your benediction on those waiting to be born and that they may be welcomed and protected.
Strengthen our sick and our elders, waiting to see Your holy face at
life's end, that they may be accompanied by true compassion and
cherished with the dignity due those who are infirm and fragile.

We praise and thank You for the gift of liberty. May this land of
the free never lack those brave enough to defend our basic freedoms.
Renew in all our people a profound respect for religious liberty - the first, most cherished freedom
- bequeathed upon us at our founding. May our liberty be in harmony
with truth, freedom ordered in goodness and justice. Help us live our
freedom in faith, hope, and love.
Make us ever grateful for those who for over two centuries have given
their lives in freedom's defense. We commend their noble souls to Your
eternal care as even now we beg the protection of Your mighty arm upon
our men and women in uniform.

Oh God of wisdom, justice, and might, we ask Your guidance for those
who govern us: President Barack Obama, Vice-President Joseph Biden,
Congress, the Supreme Court, and on all those, including Governor Mitt
Romney and Congressman Paul Ryan, who seek to serve the common good by
seeking public office. Make them all worthy to serve You by serving our
country. And help them remember that the only just government is the
government that serves its citizens rather than itself.

With Your grace, may all Americans choose wisely as we consider the future course of public policy.

And finally, Lord, we beseech Your benediction on all of us who
depart from here this evening, and on all those in every land who yearn
to conduct their lives in freedom and justice.

We beg You to remember, as we pledge to remember, those who are not
free; those who suffer for freedom's cause; those who are poor, out of
work, needy, sick, or alone; those who are persecuted for their
religious convictions; those still ravaged by war.

A California family
not allowed to board a cross-country flight said Tuesday that they
believe they were discriminated against because their son has Down
syndrome.

Robert Vanderhorst, his wife Joan and 16-year-old son Bede, who is disabled, were booked to fly on an American Airlines flight from Newark to Los Angeles on Sunday when the boy and his parents were not allowed on the plane.

The
family from Porterville had upgraded to first class tickets at an
airport kiosk, and asked the airline to seat the boy and one of his
parents together, Vanderhorst said — a request the airline granted.

When
the family was ready to board, they were stopped by airline personnel,
told their son was a "security risk" and would not be allowed on the
flight. The parents protested, and later were rebooked to fly coach with
another airline.

American Airlines spokesman Matt Miller
said the disabled boy was agitated and running around the gate area
prior to boarding, which his parents dispute. The airplane's pilot
observed the boy, Miller said, and made the call based on his behavior.

"He
was not ready to fly, that was our perspective," Miller said. "We
rebooked the family out of concern for the young man's safety and that
of other passengers as well."

But Vanderhorst said his son did not
run at any time, did not make any loud noises and didn't display any
other offensive behaviors. The boy walked around with him or sat quietly
in the gate area, Vanderhorst said.

A cell phone video captured by the boy's mother shows Bede sitting and quietly playing with a baseball cap.

Vanderhorst
said Bede, a freshman at Granite Hills High School in Porterville,
about 70 miles from Fresno, is very charming in contact with other
people. The family has flown more than two dozen times with him, without
any difficulties.

"Usually my
son gets his snack and falls asleep, just like most people," Vanderhorst said. "The problem is this pilot thought my son might not be
like most people. He didn't want a disabled person disturbing other passengers in first class."

The family says the pilot might have also been affected by the disabled boy's size — Bede is 5'1 and weighs 160 lbs.

On
the second airplane, the family was placed in the last row and no
passengers were allowed to sit within two rows of them, Vanderhorst
said.

He hoped that airlines would change their mentality when dealing with the disabled.

"It's
ridiculous and groundless to claim that this kid created a security
risk," he said. "It was the pilot's insecurity. I paid for those seats
and there was nothing that should have prevented us from taking that
flight."

American Airlines' Miller said the company will reimburse the family for the upgrade fees.

Dwayne Wade seems to have learned a few things over the years.

Mr. Wade's book is available from Amazon...

From Businessweek:

Dwyane Wade has had the kind of career you would expect of an NBA
superstar—mega contract, Olympic gold medal winner, two NBA
championships, the latest this past season with the Miami Heat as part
of the triumvirate with LeBron James and Chris Bosh. What might surprise
you is he’s a passionate family man and the author of the just released
A Father First: How My Life Became Bigger Than Basketball. Wade talked with Bloomberg Businessweek editor Josh Tyrangiel about the book, his family, managing money, and playing with two other superstars.

You are a world-famous athlete and you spent time creating
boundaries so you can live a private life and go about your business.
Then you decided to write a book that is excruciatingly private in some
places. Tell us why you decided to do that.

My mother always told me when I was young that my life was bigger
than basketball. She wanted me to look further. Having this platform, I
wanted to shed some light on my situation, on my upbringing. And in a
different way, tell about how we can all go through these things and you
can still come out and be this person. But even when you become that
person, you’re still going to have other things. A lot of kids see you,
and they say, “Oh well, you have money, everything should be fine.” But
it’s not. So just telling different stories about that, sharing my
experience, and shedding light on it.

In your book, you talk about your estrangement from your
wife, and it got incredibly personal. I’ve read many private memoirs,
but there are things in there that you must have paused over when
deciding what to include.

Well, that’s very mild, what’s in the book. I left a lot out. The
message I want to portray to my kids is, it’s not their fault. Their
lives are public in the sense their parents’ lives are public. We had to
deal with the divorce and a public custody battle. I never spoke ill of
their mother. It’s not about me; it’s not about her. I never made it
about us. I was fighting to be a father in my kids’ lives. And the rest
of it, she threw at me. I stuck to my principles of what I believe in
and what is most important. And it was those two kids.

What was your relationship with your father like?

I look at it different now. We still work on it. When I was younger
my dad was the drill sergeant, you know, things were the way he said it,
when he said it, how he said it. I respected that. But he wasn’t
loving. Dad never gave me a hug, never said I love you. It was weird,
’cause I got a [text] message from him today, and I was like, this is
the nicest thing he ever said to me. Thirty years later.

Maybe he just needed text to loosen up.

Yeah, he was waiting on text messaging. I do look back on the
relationship that we did have, and even though I hated it at the time, I
do respect it and understand that everything happens for a reason. I
wouldn’t be the person I am if I didn’t have that structure he tried to
set for me.

Your parents divorced when you were pretty young. How much of
that—living in separate households—influenced your decision to push as
hard as you did for custody?

It influenced everything. I wanted to be the one to break, as my
sister always said, the generational curse of my family. I was able to
do that when it comes to the financial side. But I wanted to do
everything else different, too. I got married the same day my mom and
dad got married. I didn’t even plan it. My mom and dad got divorced with
my sister being five and me a couple of months old. I got divorced with
my kids at that same age. It’s just weird how stuff worked out the same
way. I tried to not be the same person, and I’m not the same person.
But you do some similar things and you don’t even know you’re doing it.

You endured the longest child custody case in the history of
Cook County. What was the day-to-day impact on your family and on your
career? How did you manage it?

My family was very supportive. Not having my boys around, not being
able to have relationships with them, not having them on Father’s Day,
just different things, my family saw my hurt, they saw my pain. I think
what it did for our family is make us closer. I couldn’t be in Chicago
all the time for court. So my mom would go and my sister would go. They
supported me. So family is huge.

I want to frame this in a HR perspective. You have a boss,
Pat Riley, who seems very understanding and compassionate. Like, a
lovely, sweet man. You’re going through this incredibly difficult time.
This is a full-time endeavor for you. Did you talk to him about it? Did
you explain what you would be going through? Did you have any sense at
that point how long it would be going on?

My divorce went on for about four years. And my custody battle went
on for three years. That was a long time ago. But the organization was
very understanding. As long as my play wasn’t dropping on the court and I
was still able to perform and I wasn’t bringing any baggage from the
standpoint of how I was behaving, they were 100 percent on board with
everything I needed to do. It was great to have their support. That
loving, huggable, cuddling Mr. Pat Riley, he was very supportive—patting
me on the back when I needed and giving me advice at the same time. I
used some of his wisdom, some of his advice.

At some point your sons Zion and Zaire are going to read this book. What do you think they’re going take away from that?

I put it down in a book, through my eyes, the things I dealt with,
and my successes and my failures as well. Hopefully they can learn from
it. Hopefully they can find an appreciation of where they are and where
their life would be. When they reach a certain age, they can see how
much work they have to continue to do to keep this.

A couple years ago you had a decision to make. It could have
made your personal life a little bit easier. You’re a free agent; you
could have signed with Chicago where your kids lived at that time. You
decided not to. Take us through the calculus of that decision.

It was tough. My ideal of becoming an NBA player came from the
Chicago Bulls, growing up watching Michael Jordan and great players who
came to Chicago to win six championships. So going back there and having
the opportunity in a city you grew up in, it was playing on my
emotions. Obviously my kids were there, it was the opportunity that I
could see them more. But not being in that city while I was dealing with
all this [the divorce and custody battle], I was able to go to Miami
and get away from everything. In Chicago there was a lot going on. In a
sense, it became about that. But also, you want to be with an
organization and a team that really wants you, that really showed that
they want you. Miami showed me that since day one. It was just about
loyalty that I have and that they have to me.

How dizzying is the experience of getting all these people
who will say, “We’re going to pay you the most money we can pay
you—let’s get that out of the way.” What is it like to be wanted on that
scale?

We all have egos. It massages the ego very, very well. It was awesome.

Everyone knows how that free agency situation played out. A
little bit was made of the fact that you and LeBron James and Chris Bosh
sacrificed to play together. And, in fact, you make the least of the
three players.

Yeah.

Given where you came from—you grew up in legitimate
poverty—does it feel like a sacrifice to take a half million dollars
less than the maximum allowed to make something like that happen?

In the dollar sense, I’m blessed beyond my imagination. Obviously, we
all work very hard, and you want to be compensated for what you feel
your talents are. But you get to a point in your career when you say,
“You know what? I want to win.” It became clear to me winning was more
important than the dollar amount. That’s what it boiled down to. I could
have the most money that any team could have paid me. But I decided not
to do that. I decided to bring others in, and that made the pot a lot
smaller. But that made the opportunity a lot bigger for the future.
That’s a decision that not a lot of people understand. I don’t expect
them to understand.

What made you think this recipe of three players was going be the most successful?

I didn’t know. I had no idea. I have a great relationship with both
of these guys. For one thing, it was to play with guys who are my
friends. But also, these guys are great players. I know what they bring
to the game. I know how dynamic we can be together. But I never thought
about how hard it would be. We didn’t know the backlash we were going to
get. We didn’t know that no one was going to understand we were doing
this because we wanted to. Maybe at times we questioned, is this going
to work? But we stuck together so we had to make it work.

Was there a moment when you thought, “Oh, maybe people aren’t rooting for us anymore?”

The first game of the season is when you really get to feel it. We
ran out in Boston, came out of that tunnel, and I’ve heard boos before,
but this was something different. And it lasted a long time.

Yeah, like two years, right?

Yeah, it lasted like two years. We really got a chance to sense that
people weren’t rooting for us in Cleveland. That was like out of a
movie. It was unbelievable to look at someone’s face and see real
hatred. You start to understand how important sports are [to a
community]. I never thought about it until that point. In Cleveland, the
business took a hit. A lot of families, the way they eat, they weren’t
eating anymore. You start thinking about all these things, and I get why
it’s anger.

When you were coming into the league, how much did you know about personal finance and the business of the league?

I knew nothing. Took me a long time to figure it out.

What was your reaction the first time you actually saw an NBA paycheck? Did you know what to do with it, where to invest it?

I’m not going to say I knew what to do with it. But I knew how to do
something with it. I remember getting my first check. It was a humbling
moment because my first check was more than my father made in probably
two years. It humbled me to think about how many kids he raised and how
we were even able to live.

There’s a sad history of guys like Antoine Walker and others
who really are among the most talented basketball players in the world,
they get paid, and then it all goes away. Is there a conversation about
that among players, about ways to avoid it?

When I first came to the league, it wasn’t a topic of conversation. A
lot of guys keep to themselves, they’re individuals. I played with
Antoine Walker, and I never knew he had financial problems. It was two
years after I played with him that the story came out.People are still making the same mistakes, and I understand why. I
went from making $210 a month in college to roughly $100,000 every two
weeks. What do I do with that? You feel like, “I’ve worked for this.
I’ve earned this. It’s mine. You can’t tell me nothing.” That was my
mentality early on. You get in a situation where you don’t have the
money when you’re done because it’s fast money. Dramatic things have to
happen to some guys to say, “I need to stop this.” My divorce was that
moment for me. I was like, “O.K., this is not the life I want to live.
This is not how I want my kids to live, way beyond my sport playing
days.” So it clicked.

For the first time in the finals I actually heard someone
say, “Well, you know, Wade is entering the later years of his career.”
And I just thought, “Wow, that is brutal.” So first of all, how do you
see the next trajectory of your career? And then, what do you want to do
with the rest of your life?

Well, on the first part, it’s weird because when you’re 27, they say
you’re in the prime. Then when you’re 30, you’re done. It’s three years.
It’s amazing to me.What I will continue to do is try to walk through the doors that have
been opened from playing professional sports. When I first came to the
NBA, I probably would have said I wanted to be in broadcasting, ’cause
that’s what I did in school. Now I have so many other areas in so many
fields that I’m into and that I love, the sky’s the limit. I’m at the
point now I’m just seeing what sticks. I’m having fun with it all.

2016 Obama's America takes audiences on a gripping
visual journey into the heart of the world’s most powerful office to
reveal the struggle of whether one man's past will redefine America over
the next four years. The film examines the question, "If Obama wins a
second term, where will we be in 2016?"

Across the globe and in America, people in 2008 hungered for a
leader who would unite and lift us from economic turmoil and war. True
to America’s ideals, they invested their hope in a new kind of
president, Barack Obama. What they didn't know is that Obama is a man
with a past, and in powerful ways that past defines him--who he is, how
he thinks, and where he intends to take America and the world.

Immersed in exotic locales across four continents, best
selling author Dinesh D’Souza races against time to find answers to
Obama’s past and reveal where America will be in 2016. During this
journey he discovers how Hope and Change became radically misunderstood,
and identifies new flashpoints for hot wars in mankind’s greatest
struggle. The journey moves quickly over the arc of the old colonial
empires, into America’s empire of liberty, and we see the unfolding
realignment of nations and the shape of the global future.

Emotionally engaging, 2016 Obama’s America will make you confounded and cheer as you discover the mysteries and answers to your greatest aspirations and worst fears.

Love him or hate him, you don’t know him.

About the Filmmakers

Gerald R. Molen

Gerald Molen has produced many of the most memorable films in
the last three decades including blockbusters like Jurassic Park,
Twister, Days of Thunder, Hook and Minority Report. He was a producer
for the Academy Award winning film Schindler’s List and co-producer for
Rain Man which won the Oscar for Best Picture.

Dinesh D’Souza

Born in Mumbai, India Dinesh D'Souza has truly lived the
American Dream. He moved to the United States to attend Dartmouth
College and upon graduation he went to work in the Reagan White House as
a policy analyst.

He has been a fellow of the Hoover Institute at Stanford
University and the American Enterprise Institute. He is also the author
of the New York Times Bestseller The Roots of Obama’s Rage. His other
book titles include the popular What’s So Great About Christianity,
Letters to a Young Conservative, and The End of Racism. He is a popular
speaker and has appeared on Hannity, The Colbert Report, Glenn Beck and
Politically Incorrect.

Although the
economy shed thousands of middle-wage jobs during the Great Recession,
the bulk of the employment gains since then have been in low-wage arenas
such as retail, food-service, and home-care industries, according to a
new report released by the National Employment Law Project, a liberal research group.

Low-wage jobs, defined as those that pay no more than $13.83 an hour,
accounted for 21 percent of recession job losses but have accounted for
58 percent of the recovery growth.

At the same time, middle-wage
occupations (jobs with an average hourly rate between $13.84 and $21.13)
accounted for 60 percent of the jobs losses, yet accounted for only 22
percent of the job growth, according to the NELP
study which analyzed federal census and labor data. The report largely
used the Current Population Survey, which is a joint project of the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the U.S. Census Bureau.

The figures also showed that high-wage paying jobs (those paying from $21.14 and up to $54.55) experienced strong growth.

The uneven recovery means that
long-term income and wealth inequality in the U.S. will continue to
increase for years to come, according to the study.

Among the low-wage jobs that will
continue to see more growth by 2020 are retail personnel,
food-preparation worker, office clerk, and grounds-maintenance
worker—for which the annual gross salary would be no more than $28,350
in current dollars, according to the report.

“The recovery continues to be
skewed toward low-wage jobs, reinforcing the rise in inequality and
America’s deficit of good jobs,” Annette Bernhardt, NELP’s policy codirector, said in a statement.

But the shrinking middle-wage occupations are part of a longer-term trend, according to aNew York Timesreport. Continuing government layoffs factor into the downward movement of those who were once middle-wage earners.

There are 586,000 fewer government jobs now than in December 2008, a Wall Street Journalarticle reported,
citing Labor Department figures. The government sector has continued to
shed jobs in public schools as well as local and state agencies. For
example, about 15,000 government jobs were lost in April, according to WSJ.

A vast majority of Americans (89
percent) believe that the foremost ticket to the middle class is a
secure job, trumping education, homeownership, and stock and bond
investments, an August Pew Research Center study found. The nationwide survey of 2,508 adults didn’t address wages.

Jobs growth slowed more than expected in August, setting the stage for the Federal Reserve to pump additional money into the sluggish economy next week and dealing a blow to President Obama as he seeks reelection in November.

Nonfarm payrolls increased only 96,000 last month, the Labor Department said on Friday. While the unemployment rate dropped to 8.1 percent from 8.3 percent in July, it was largely due to Americans giving up the search for work.

Watch the commie creep crow about that 0.2 "drop".

The report's weak
tenor was also underscored by revisions to June and July data to show
41,000 fewer jobs created than previously reported. The labor force participation rate,
or the percentage of Americans who either have a job or are looking for
one, fell to 63.5 percent -- the lowest since September 1981.

The lackluster report keeps the pressure on Obama ahead
of the November vote in which the health of the economy looms large.

Economists polled by Reuters had expected payrolls to
rise 125,000 last month, but some had pushed their forecasts higher
after upbeat data on Thursday.

The economy has
experienced three years of growth since the 2007-09 recession, but the
expansion has been grudging and the jobless rate has held above 8 percent for more than three years -- the longest stretch since the Great Depression.

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke
last week said the labor market's stagnation was a "grave concern," a
comment that raised expectations for a further easing of monetary policy
as soon as the central bank's meeting on Wednesday and Thursday.

The jobless rate
peaked at 10 percent in October 2009, but progress reducing it stalled
this year, threatening Obama's bid for a second term. An online
Reuters/Ipsos poll on Thursday gave Republican Challenger Mitt Romney a 1-point edge on Obama, 45 percent to 44 percent.

The lack of headway putting Americans back to work has
also put the question of further monetary stimulus on the table at the
Fed. The central bank has held interest rates close to zero for nearly
four years and pumped about $2.3 trillion into the economy through two
bouts of bond buying.

The weak report
makes it more likely that the Fed will launch a third round of bond
purchases next week. Since the beginning of the year, job growth has
averaged 139,000 per month, compared with an average monthly gain of
153,000 in 2011.

Economists blame
fears of the so-called U.S. fiscal cliff -- the $500 billion or so in
expiring tax cuts and government spending reductions set to take hold at
the start of next year unless Congress acts -- and Europe's
long-running debt problems, for the slowdown in hiring.

Job creation last month was weak across the board, with
manufacturing payrolls down 15,000, the first decline since September
last year. Factory jobs were inflated in July because automobile
manufacturers kept plants running when they would normally shut them for
retooling, economists said.

There was little
improvement in construction employment, which added 1,000 jobs.
Temporary hiring fell 4,900, declining for the first time since March.

Utilities payrolls
saw a snap back, adding 8,800 after being depressed by the strike of
about 9,000 workers in July.

Government payrolls declined 7,000, falling for a sixth straight month.

Average hourly earnings fell one cent last month, highlighting the underlying weakness in the labor market.

Wednesday, September 05, 2012

From Philly.com:

When
a man five months removed from a DUI conviction came driving down
Roosevelt Boulevard on Wednesday night, allegedly drunk behind the wheel
again, Michael Romano's son was directly in his path. Romano made a
split-second decision to save his son's life - and gave up his own.

The
car, driven by Roderick Williams, 22, of the 3000 block of North 23d
Street, struck Romano as he pushed his 5-year-old son out of harm's way
in a southbound lane near Loney Street.

Paramedics pronounced Romano, 43, dead at the scene of the crash, which happened shortly before 11 p.m.

Romano's
son was transported to St. Christopher's Hospital for Children with his
mother, who was nearby but did not witness the incident, said Sgt.
Lawrence Ritchie of the Accident Investigation Division. The boy was
treated for minor cuts and bruises.Williams pleaded guilty in March to a DUI incident from Sept. 11.
Police said Williams was drunk and continued driving after striking
Romano.

An off-duty officer, who happened to be driving behind
Williams, witnessed the accident and pulled Williams over a few blocks
later.

Williams has been charged with vehicular homicide while
driving under the influence and driving with a suspended license,
Ritchie said, along with such related charges as leaving the scene of an
accident.

A woman on the 3000 block of North 23d Street, who
identified herself as Williams' grandmother, said Williams was a "pretty
good boy."

The
Republican convention finally got going on Tuesday with a parade of
speakers taking the stage to express the official theme of the evening: “Mitt Romney: You’re Darned Tooting He’s Human!”

Golly, Dave's still got it after all these years. Bourgeois humor at its finest.

This theme is intended to counteract what the Republicans see as
their candidate’s biggest weakness, which is that when many voters look
at Mitt, they do not see a regular person like themselves. They see this
tall, fit, handsome, rich Mormon with a square jaw and perfect hair and
a blond wife and at least 23 tall handsome clone sons; a man who
appears to be calculating and reserved; a man who has never once, even
at a wedding reception, gotten hammered and danced the Funky Chicken and
then passed out facedown in the prime rib.

Voters see this, and they say to themselves: “This man can’t possibly
relate to me and my everyday problems, such as my financial woes, my
hemorrhoids, and this tendency I have to talk to myself.”

So the Republicans brought out a parade of humanizers, with the star
being Mitt’s wife, Ann. She talked, movingly, about a completely
different Mitt Romney, a Mitt Romney whom most people have never seen, a
Mitt Romney who is funny, spontaneous, tender, laid-back, 5 feet tall,
overweight, bald and—in some states— Jewish.

Huh?

Will this message resonate with
the voters? I have no idea. I’m deep inside the Convention Zone, a world
of intense political geekdom totally disconnected from regular
Earthlings. You have no idea how weird it is in here. Newt Gingrich
walks by, and people act as though it’s Brad Pitt. A person named “Piers
Morgan” is HUGE. At one point, I found myself in a clot of media people
running—running!—to catch up to Mike Huckabee.
At least I think it was Mike Huckabee. It was definitely a large man
with a comb-over. All I know is, we were after him. I found myself
getting caught up in it, joining the pursuit, until it hit me: What would I do if I actually caught him? I had no questions to ask him, except maybe, “Are you Mike Huckabee?”

VOTE FOR ROMNEY, NOT THE ZOMBIE!

It was after this incident that I realized I had to get out of the
Convention Zone. So I made my way through the maze of chain-link fences
and police checkpoints, out to the streets of Tampa, hoping to find some
normal people. Instead I found protesters. There were maybe a hundred
of them, mostly young, some wearing bandanas to protect their secret
identities from ... I don’t really know. Maybe their parents.

The demonstrators were marching on a meandering route, shooting video
of one another and chanting, “Hey, hey, ho, ho; poverty has got to go.”
(It is a proven economic fact that if you chant this enough times,
poverty, as we know it, will disappear.)

Observing the protesters were
several hundred police officers, a few dozen members of the news media, a
preacher instructing them through an electronic bullhorn to accept
Jesus, and essentially zero members of the actual public. So, as is
traditional with protests, there was no chance that anybody’s mind would
be changed about anything.

At one point it appeared as
though there might be a confrontation between the protesters and the
police, but nobody’s heart really seemed to be in it.

Eventually it started raining and the protest melted away. I’ve seen more civil unrest at bar mitzvahs.

What's with all this Jewish stuff, Dave? Are you signaling King Goober II in Charlotte?

For me, the best part of the
protest was the presence of Vermin Supreme—his legal name—who has been a
candidate for president for many years and received 837 votes in the
New Hampshire primary. I’m always happy to run into Vermin on the
campaign trail; he’s easy to spot, because he wears a large rubber boot
on his head. He also wears as many as six neckties simultaneously,
although here, because of the heat, he was down to just three.

Vermin’s
signature issue has long been dental hygiene—he is for it—but he told
me that he has recently added zombie preparedness and awareness.

Finally we get to the good stuff.

He said
he wants “to harness the awesome power of zombies” by putting them on
treadmills and using them to generate electricity. He notes, “There has
never been an accident resulting from a zombie escape from a licensed
zombie-generating facility.”

You cannot argue with that.

And now for some late-breaking convention updates:

WORLD’S LONGEST CONTINUOUS SIDEWALK: As of this morning, Tampa still holds the record.

MYSTERY SPEAKER: Rumor here is
that there will be a mystery speaker on Thursday night, the idea being
that the element of surprise will keep the news media interested in the
convention. I think this might work, but only if they pick the right
speaker. It needs to be somebody with something to say, somebody with
real ideas, and—above all—somebody with footwear on his head.

Nope, guess again. It's cystic fibrosis.

Italy's ban on screening embryos for diseases before they are implanted in
a womb violates the rights of a couple whose first child was born with
cystic fibrosis, the European Court of Human Rights ruled...

Citing "severe
weather forecasts," the Democratic National Convention Committee
announced Wednesday that President Barack Obama would move his
prime-time acceptance speech from Bank of America Stadium to a smaller,
indoor venue nearby.

They'd sound more credible if they claimed Bush made it rain on their Nuremberg II.

"We have been monitoring weather
forecasts closely and several reports predict thunderstorms in the area,
therefore we have decided to move Thursday's proceedings to Time Warner
Cable Arena to ensure the safety and security of our delegates and
convention guests," DNCC CEO Steve Kerrigan said in a statement.

Republicans had questioned
whether Obama could fill the stadium's 73,778 seats (and needled
Democrats for holding their big event in a venue named for a bank
associated with unpopular Wall Street bailouts). Kerrigan's statement
said 65,000 people had signed up for "community credentials" to see the
president speak.

We need a government that stands up for the hopes,
values, and interests of working people, and gives everyone willing to
work hard the chance to make the most of their God-given potential.

But that plank has been rewritten to remove the phrase "God-given."

"We gather to reclaim the basic bargain that built the largest middle
class and the most prosperous nation on Earth – the simple principle
that in America, hard work should pay off, responsibility should be
rewarded, and each one of us should be able to go as far as our talent
and drive take us,” the platform now reads.

When God wanted to make a statement, the Bible cites the flood of
Noah, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, and the parting of the Red
Sea as examples of His work. While His intervention in American politics
is rare, the latest act of God may be a troubling sign for President Barack Obama.

According to a report by the Washington Times, a freak rainstorm has severely damaged a giant sand sculpture of Barack Obama erected at the Democratic National Convention
in Charlotte, North Carolina. The Mount Rushmore-like sculpture, which
had been dubbed "Mount Obama," collapsed on its right side, and suffered
major surface damage. The head and left side remained largely intact
while workers frantically tried to repair the sculpture Saturday
afternoon.

Even though the sand sculpture was covered, the sudden thunderstorm
that popped up Saturday afternoon was so intense, winds blew rain
sideways into the sculpture, causing most of the water damage. The
sculpture was created by artist Mark Mason, and was erected just outside
the Time Warner Cable Arena in Charlotte.

Republicans had criticized the sculpture as indicative of the
President's ego, and its destruction could be seen as a heavenly
endorsement of Gov. Mitt Romney. Even those who do not believe the
"divine retribution" theory will likely see the irony that the
environment or global warming may have caused Mount Obama's downfall.

It's ironic that Tammy Duckworth is part of the babykilling über allescrowd 'cause she looks like a girl who was the victim of an an abortion - except somebody cared enough to save her life after some evil motherfucker ripped off her legs and arm.

She is now ready to become part of the ignoble tradition of warriors who return from battle, get into politics, and proceed to do everything in their power to enslave their countrymen. [I was going to add "from Julius Caesar to Wesley Clark", but that would have shortchanged so many dictator wannabees in between. See how many you can name, kiddies.] May God have mercy on her soul.

About Me

First of all, the word is SEX, not GENDER. If you are ever tempted to use the word GENDER, don't. The word is SEX! SEX! SEX! SEX! For example: "My sex is male." is correct.
"My gender is male." means nothing. Look it up.
What kind of sick neo-Puritan nonsense is this? Idiot left-fascists, get your blood-soaked paws off the English language. Hence I am choosing "male" under protest.